In Memory of Granny

As I was writing the previous post earlier this evening my husband and I left to go visit his Granny who had been transferred from the hospital to a hospice house. She passed while we were there visting. So I am dedicating this post to the wonderful woman who raised my husband. Below is the quilt top of the first jelly roll race quilt that I made. It was for Granny's 96th Birthday a few months ago, wish I had gotten a photo of her with it.  We are sad to see her go but glad that she is no longer in pain.
We love you Granny

Quilty Cousin comes for a visit

Yay! My one and only relative who quilts came to visit me last weekend.  She lives a few hours away so we don't get to see each other very often. 
Of course we had to go visit my favorite LQS and while there she mentioned that she had not yet made a complete quilt as she has been learning through her guild by making sampler blocks. 
I thought "well, we are gonna have to fix this" and asked her if she would like to go home from her visit with a completed quilt.  Of course the answer was YES! so we picked out a jelly roll and backing and binding fabrics with the idea of completing a jelly roll race quilt before she went home the next day.
Well.... We almost did it lol.  We had some other family over for dinner and ended up visting for several hours and didn't get to the sewing until around 9pm.  She had the top pieced and a border added before we gave in for the night at 3am. After going out for breakfast and more visting we went back to my house and got the quilt sandwich basted (with elmer's glue of course).
She wanted to try free motion quilting so I made a practice sandwich for her to work on.  We were having so much fun trying freemotion and chatting that time got away from us. It was time for her to go home.  So after a quick lesson on binding and writing a list of some great online tutorials and videos to reference if she got stuck she headed home.
Here is her quilt top...great job Dom!

Custom Acrylic Shapes

I still haven't had a chance to play with these yet, but I am excited to get them in the mail to Cindy@SewMeSerenity, she was the winner of my first ever (hopefully of many) giveaway during the twitter Black Friday Sew In. 
I have a new set ordered and on their way. They should be in by the middle of next week, just in time to make a whole lotta half-square-triangles for a quilt that I hope to have done in time for Christmas.

I was looking for quilting rulers in various sizes to use when trimming half-square-triangles or fussy cutting without having to repeatedly move and re-align my ruler. As far as I can tell, they don't make or sell them in any and every size. Lets face it, I will be the first to tell you that I am lazy and want to find the easiest or most efficient way to get things done, so I was determined to find a way.

That is when I came across the Delvies Plastics website.

You can get different thicknesses and are able to custom order pretty much any shape or size.
Since they aren't actual rulers I custom ordered them with the lines engraved to help with centering blocks/designs. You can get them quite inexpensively if you can manage without the engraved lines, but hey, I'm going for easy.  Even with the engraving I think that the price was very reasonable.
I ordered 2", 3", 4", 5", 5 1/2" and 6", all 1/8" thick it was $30 including shipping (so the cost may differ a bit depending on shipping rates), for 6 faux rulers I think that is a very fair price.  You can get the laser cut shapes up to 17" or 17 1/2" (I can't quite remember what she said on the phone).

The only issue I foresee with these at this point is that like most rulers they are smooth on the back and will probably slip around. Maybe it's just me, but I have this problem with every on eof my rulers, even the ones that are supposed to be no-slip. So I am going to give mine the treatment that I give to all of my rulers, a quick shot of spray adhesive on the back.  I just give them a light spray and let them dry before using.  This is the only method that has worked for me so far.  I have tried the grippers and the stickers and the vinyl sheets to no avail.

Again, they have many shapes and sizes standard and with the cutomizable options you can let your imagination run wild creating templates.  My experience with them has been good.  Customer service has been responsive both by email and on the phone.  So, go check them out.

Trimming squares - Giveaway

I have been on the hunt for a 3" square ruler for trimming up 2.5" (finished) half square triangles. I never would have thought that they would be so hard to find. Needless to say, my search has been fruitless... until I found a site that will custom laser cut and engrave pretty much any size acrylic shapes. So I ordered these.

I got a 2", 3", 4", 5", 5 1/2" and 6", each with a line engraved in the horizontal and vertical center line and from corner to corner. I was trying to get the sizes that you can't already get with the square quilting rulers. The lines should help with centering the squares since they don't have ruler marks.

I haven't had a chance to use them yet as they came in the mail the day before I left to Indiana.

The price was very reasonable, including shipping it was only a couple dollars more than the cost of a 12 1/2" square ruler. Shipping time was good, I received them in less than 10 days.

I did not think to ask them if it would be okay to link to their website, so for now if you would like info please email me and I will be glad to forward the info to you.

UPDATE: To celebrate the Black Friday Sew In (#BFSI) I would like to give away a set of these trimming squares. So if you would like a set please comment on this post or follow me on twitter @SweetAdelineQ for a chance to win. I will choose a winner at random at midnight tonight (eastern time) and contact you by email for shipping info.

Deadline met!

So excited that I was able to meet the nearly impossible deadline that I had set for myself. It was a good thing that the cousin I was traveling with had to work the day we were plannig to leave. I finished the quilt at about 2:30 Friday afternoon and had just enough time to wash and dry it before we left that evening. The top is made with fabrics from a few different lines, unfortunately, the only one I remember the name of is Double Chocolate. Guess I should start writing this stuff down instead of holding on to the selvages and then not remembering where i put them. The backing fabric is Wintergreen by 3 Sisters for Moda. I totally fell in love with it and think that I need to go back to my LQS and buy more.

This is the first quilt that i quilted entirely with freemotion. Needless to say it is not the most fabulous quilting I have ever seen but it came out okay. For the center I did lines of leaves, then more leaves in the center border and then crazy curls in the outer border.

The quilt was hand delivered to my cousin-in-law and she loved it. She is one of the sweetest people you could ever meet and is always doing for others in her family and her community. A hand made quilt is the least of what she deserves. The timing was just right as it was starting to snow a bit when we left Monday evening. All in all it was a really long drive both ways but it was totally worth it to spend time with family that we only get to see once or twice a year.

Oh, the impossible deadlines I give myself

So, amid all of the other things I have been working on like the plane quilt and another that I cannot speak of yet because it will be a Christmas gift, I have now given myself a nearly impossible deadline of one week to complete a queen size quilt nearly from scratch.

I started this project several months ago and got about 1/4 of the triangles pieced.  My intention was that this would be a (another) Christmas gift for a relative in Indiana.  So I decided yesterday (Thursday) that I am going to go to Indiana next Friday with a cousin.  I finshed piecing the rest of the triangles, 28 of each color.  Needless to say I have a lot of work to do.  I need to trim up the triangles and then decide on a layout, thinking something along the lines of what is shown in the second picture and continuing out with the concentric squares.

 

Wish me luck...

Paper Pieced Plain Planes

Wow, that's a lot of "P"s
I am also working on a quilt for a baby boy who's family loves to fly planes.  So what better on a quilt that a bunch of planes.
I don't like to make my baby quilt too juvenile (novelty prints etc) because I like to imagine that they will be kept for many years to come. So I decided to make paper pieced planes with Kona solid in Navy on a plain Kona White background.

 

I wanted to do a navy & white stripe fabric for the backing but wasn't able to find any that I liked so I made my own.

 

It is now basted ready to quilt.  I am thinking of outling the planes and then quilting a propeller design in the center of each plain block.

Happy 100th Birthday jelly roll race quilt

My husband's Great Aunt just turned 100 last weekend.  I didn't have a lot of time to make her a quilt so I decided on another jelly roll race quilt in purple batiks.  The quilting is just freeform overlapping curvy lines in a purple variegated thread.  I trimmed it down to 50" square since she is a rather petite woman, but apparently I forgot just how small she is.

She is sooo cute peeking over the top.  Standing on her tippy toes even though she is wearing 3" heels. 
You just gotta love her, 100 years old and still doesn't leave home without being dressed to the nines with make-up and heels on.
One of my husband's cousins asked her secret to staying youthfull. 
She answered Estee Lauder... Hilarious!

Slacking on the blog front and a new addition to the family

Sorry I have been slacking on the blog front lately. 
I have a tendancy to get so wrapped up in my quilting that I neglect everything else.
To make up for lost time I am going to post a few blogs tonight or morning or whatever it is now...
I will start by introducing my new friend, I don't know her name yet but she sure is awesome.  She is a 1956 Singer 201-2.

 

She is a little dusty here as I had just got her home.  She has since gone in for a good cleaning and a tune up since her previous owner had no idea when she was last tuned.  We have been very busy.  In the last month and half since she joined the family we have completed 3 full quilts and pieced another 1 1/2. 

Two more quilts

 

For some reason the program would not allow me to post any more photos in the previous post so here are the other two quilts I finished.  Both are 78" x 96" which makes them the largest quilts I have made so far.  I completed both in about 2 1/2 weeks with many late nights/early mornings.

 

The fist is made from a pattern called Checkerboard Chevron, designed by the lovely ladies at Inspire! Quilting & Sewing in Plant City FL (my favorite Local Quilt Store).

 

The top is made with frabrics from the Sunnyside line by Kate Spain for Moda, High Street by Lily Ashbury for Moda and a Moda solid in a minty green (didn't think to look at the color name on the bolt but it sure is pretty)

I quilted a geometric floral shape in the center of the negative spaces and then echoed the lines of the chevron pattern.

 

The back is Little Things for Free Spirit, so bright and fun!

 

The second, I will call it Infinty Squared" is made from Mossy Oak Breakup Infinty fabric paired with Moda solid in Tangerine.  The design is really simple, just raw edged squares on top of a solid piece of the tangerine, the border is also raw edged around the tangerine.  The squares and border are temporarily held in place with Elmers washable school glue, it washes right out when the quilt is finished.  I basted everything together and then the "piecing" and quilting are all done in one step.  I followed the lines about 1/4" inside each piece to make a large grid and then did a double row around the border.

So now that my marathon session of quilting is over I am trying to get the super secret Christmas gift started.  Hopefully I can gather more motivation and get out of my mental funk before this weeked so that I can make at least a little bit progress on it and get started on the airplane quilt. 

Thank you for visiting

Some Finishes, Finally!

Sorry I have been gone for so long.  I was sewing like a maniac and now I am in a bit of a funk.

Anyway...

I have finally finished the Piked Peaks quilt for Jon Jon down the street, he is just sooo darn adorable.  The pattern is from the Modern Neutrals book by Amy Ellis.  I added a pop of red because it matches Jon Jon's toy car that he rides around the neighborhood.  I will veer off track a bit and tell you that he just HAD to trade in his jeep that he had before because he HAD to have a red car that matched my son's red mustang (since totalled btw).  Did I mention how adorable he is.  He is 3 years old and he really loves his quilt.  Just in time for a little cool weather that we are expecting this weekend, well cool for Florida anyway...

You can't see the quilting very well in the photo but I quilted with red in a chevron pattern following the arrows and then with silver following the same chevron pattern in the spaces between the arrows.

After so much frustration in the beginning I have to say that I really like how it turned out.

Here is the back that I finally went with, had to get the racing stripes in there.

 

After finishing Piked Peaks I made two quilts for a coworker to give as birthday gifts to her grandchildren.

 

I guess I will have to create a separate post for the other two quilts because it will not let me add any more photos for some reason.

So bye for now...

Quilting ADD

I am having a little trouble staying focused on any one project lately.
I completed 2 quilts recently that were for last minute birthday gifts.  Andrew's Argyle was a hit with him, his parents and grandparents. 
Also, the chopped jelly roll race was a hit with my husbands grandmother.  I should have posted completed pics after it was quilted and bound, but silly me forgot to take any pictures of it.
I should be working on finishing up the "Piked Peaks" quilt but after making the third, yes third, back (long story I will save for another day) and getting it basted I was having issues with the thread I was using to quilt it.  After only 2 rows of quilting the thread started shredding on the third.  After un-sewing about 3 feet of stitiching I was so frustrated that I threw it in a laundry basket and gave up...for now. 
I have so many projects that I should be starting, in addition to finishing "Piked Peaks".  I purchased the fabric to start a Christmas gift quilt in July but haven't even made the first cut.  I also need to make an airplane themed baby quilt, but I haven't decided exactly what to do with it yet.  I guess it's time to sit down and play in EQ7 and start making some decisions.  And then there are the quilts that co-workers have requested, that's another 3 to add to the list.  Oh boy!
I have been feeling so frustrated that I haven't even plugged my sewing machine in since last Thursday, that is 4 days of no sewing and I am starting to have a bit of withdrawal.  So the little wheels started spinning in my head while driving home from work today.  I have decided that since I have given away every quilty thing I have ever made that it is about time to take a little break from every one else and be a little selfish.  I got this china hutch this weekend from a good friend that is moving away.  Now I will have somewhere to stash my quilting tools in the dining room where I sew instead of carrying everything back and forth to my bedroom closet.  I think it needs a little something quilty, like a table runner, to cover the top.  So I am going to make a couple hundred half square triangles to make a scrappy top.  I need the practice with HST's before I start the Christmas quilt so I guess I will just kill both birds with one stone.

(or all 9 of them on the hutch, I didn't realize I had a bird collecting problem)

 

 

Okay, I will stop venting now.  If you made it this far, thank you for listening.



Chopped Jelly Roll Race Finished

The chopped jelly roll race lap quilt is finished. I got all of the strips sewn together end to end in about an hour last night, The total length was about 1,500". Then finished the remainder of the sewing tonight in about an hour. I used a 3/8th" seam allowance for the remaining steps as i wanted the quilt to finish less than the usual 64" long. It finished at about 45" by 55".
Backing and quilting on the agenda for tomorrow night then attaching the binding on Friday and hand sewing the binding to the back on Saturday.
Not knowing how it would look until it was finished was a bit scary but I think it turned out okay.

From this

To this

To this

Oh, the messes I make for myself!

I decided that I wanted the colors to change more frequently in the jelly roll race quilt and I wanted to add a lighter solid to brighten up the darker fabrics. So I cut all of my strips into 3 different random lengths and cut different length strips from a cream solid that I had left over from Andrew's Argyle. I must admit that "scrappy" is not really my thing and I tend to agonize for hours and sometimes days over the color placement. I don't have the extra time to waste on this project since the Birthday party is on Sunday and it is currently Tuesday evening, and I have to work all week. So I am going to play a little game with myself and hope for a good outcome. I tossed all of the chopped up strips into a laundry basket and gave them a good mixing. I have challenged myself to grab blindly from the basket for each strip and it is going on in that order, period. The only rules are: 1) NO PEEKING!!! and 2) I can only throw a strip back if it is the same fabric as the one it will be placed next to. Off to the races! Wish me luck...

A little sad and a lot crazy?

I put Andrew's Argyle in the mail today and for some reason I'm kind of sad to see it go. For me the joy of giving comes from seeing the excitement on a childs face and I am going to miss that with this one. This was the first time I've ever mailed a quilt and I just hope it makes it there safe. So, I had the crazy idea this morning on my drive into work that I should make another last minute birthday gift. This one will be for my husband's grandmother who is turning 96! this weekend. I went to the Bernina Pfaff store that opened recently right around the corner from work (dangerous location for my finances, lol) and purchased batting and fabric for the back and binding. I already have a jelly roll of moda historical blenders that I am going to use to make a jelly roll race quilt which should go very quickly. I already used a few strips from it for Andrew's Argyle but I think there will be enough left for a lap/throw quilt. I'll post again tomorrow to let you know how that turns out.

Baby Argyle Quilt

I wanted to make a last minute birthday gift for a little boy turning four, so I made this adorable quilt. It is based on the Baby Argyle pattern by Angela Yosten. I assembled the squares and the remainder of the quilt top a little differently and added raw edge applique letters at the bottom for the name. Although I tried a few new-to-me techniques, it was pretty easy and quick to assemble. It only took 3 evenings after work to piece the top and one more late night after work to quilt it. This was my first time incorporating free motion quilting (around the letters), my first time doing raw edge applique on a quilt and the first time adding decorative hand stitching (the dark lines through the argyle blocks). Some of these turned out better than others but I'm trying my best to not notice my imperfections. I am going to mail it tomorrow. I hope he loves it as muh as I do! (the pictures are not the best quality and, silly me, I can't figure out how to rotate them, maybe another night when I am a little more awake)

Piked Peaks quilt top

I was finally able to complete a quilt top that I have been working on between tote bag sewing marathons. This is my version of the Piked Peaks pattern from the Modern Neutrals book by Amy Ellis. I added a pop of red and converted the pattern to a paper piecing pattern since that is a skill that I have been wanting to learn and I wanted to make sure that my points were as precise as possible. I plan to add a red binding but I haven't decided exactly what I want to do on the back yet. It is going to be a gift for a super cute little guy who lives a few houses down from us so I was thinking of using the left over bits from the front to make a large letter J in the center of a white background. Hope he loves it as much as I do...

Detour for bags

So I took a small detour from my quilting journey to create a messenger bag and some reversible cheerleader tote bags for my niece. 

messenger bag with adjustable strap

The exterior is 2" squares of multi-color polka dots pieced together and the interior is the same fabric as the flap.

The tote came out so cute that I just can't stand it.  Go Bulldogs!!! 

main side

secondary side



The primary side is made with 2 fabrics pieced together and then trimmed with a chiffon ruffle and ric rac in school colors, then i appliqued her jersey numbers onto it.  The interior is also trimmed with a chiffon ruffle and ric rac.

These were quite fun to make, I will post a tutorial soon...

Introduction

Hi, my name is Adelle.  I was named after my Great-Grandmother, Adeline. I have many fond memories of spending time at her home playing cards, dice and board games. She always had an open door and some fresh strawberry jam for us great and great-great grand kids, all twenty something of us.

I have loved quilts and dreamed of learning to quilt for as long as I can remember. I finally decided that it was time to try a couple of years ago.  I purchased a kit from a local quilt store for a very simple block quilt and another for a rag quilt. They came out okay for a first timer.  I tried once more a few months later with a slightly more involved pattern and after assembling the blocks I realized the importance of keeping an accurate 1/4" seam. Not a pretty site!  I was so discouraged that I put the blocks into a storage box and forgot about them. So I gave up for a while.   

In early 2012 I was contemplating whether or not to give it another go.
When I learned that an acquaintance was expecting a baby girl I decided that it was time, so I subscribed to a magazine and bought a book that showed in great detail how to piece several different traditional quilt blocks and taught myself the basics.

In mid-2012 I was shopping for fabric to start the baby quilt when I fell in love with a beautiful vintage floral the reminded me of my Great-Grandmother.  I purchased the floral and some coordinating tonal prints and made this simple, yet beautiful (I think so anyway) quilt with bento boxes on point with white sashing.

 
The quilt bug truly bit me in November / December 2012 when I was making the log cabin quilt below for a dear friend who was experiencing some medical issues and the only way I knew to give comfort and encouragement was with a quilt.  I had an inspirational verse (Psalm 29:11) embroidered onto the fabric that I was using for the border.

I have made several since and will post a bit about them in the future.  Unfortunately, I have never been much of a picture taker so I apologize in advance because some quilts I never even thought to photograph, and those that I have are not the best quality photos. 

 I will also post some tutorials and tips on tools and tricks that have been helpful to me during my quilting journey.